Why is the nation of Israel so central in God's plan for the world?

Les explains that when God divided the nations and separated the offspring of Adam, He set the national boundaries of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. He says everything God has done with the human race on this planet revolves around that little nation of Israel. Most of the world does not want to believe this, and it is hard to believe how one little nation of only a few million people can be so important in God's overall picture of the billions of the rest of the world. Yet, as He said, at the core of everything is this little nation of Israel. In the tribulation, God will primarily pour out His wrath on Christ-rejecting Jews, while the whole world comes under the effects of cataclysmic events—meteorites, volcanoes, earthquakes, and magnified natural disasters. The Body of Christ must be taken out of the way before God can pick up and deal with Israel; this occurs in the context of the great resurrection day, the main harvest.